Tamio Wakayama: Exhibition offers valuable history and teen programs

By Sarah Osborne (she/her), Vancouver Art Gallery

The Vancouver Art Gallery’s current exhibition, Enemy Alien: Tamio Wakayama, offers teachers a rich opportunity to delve into the areas of social justice, art, and local history. The first major solo exhibition dedicated to the late documentary photographer Tamio Wakayama (1941–2018), the exhibition spans more than five decades of Wakayama’s career, documenting social justice movements and communities across Canada and the United States. Wakayama’s images tell stories of resistance, joy, and cultural resilience in the face of injustice. Enemy Alien is curated by internationally recognized, Vancouver-based artist and independent curator Paul Wong, who knew Wakayama from the 1970s until the artist’s death in 2018.

Wakayama was born in New Westminster, BC, mere months before Pearl Harbor and was soon forcibly relocated with his parents to an internment camp for Japanese Canadians. This early childhood experience of injustice would shape the rest of his life and practice. As a young man Wakayama, inspired by a deep sympathy for civil rights activists, drove to Birmingham, Alabama, met John Lewis, and began working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Atlanta, first as a cleaner and driver and soon as a photographer. For two years Wakayama produced campaign material and documented SNCC activists and actions in Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama, including the 1964 Freedom Summer. 

In the 1970s, Wakayama established a photographic studio in Vancouver and forged deep connections with the local Japanese Canadian community. He became an integral part of the era’s dynamic cultural revitalization of the Japanese Canadian community, dedicating years to documenting cultural life. For decades, he photographed the Powell Street Festival.

The exhibition also features Cindy Mochizuki’s documentary film Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama (2024, 70 mins). Through a combination of archival footage, hand-painted animation, and narrative and newly recorded interviews, the film explores how Wakayama’s time with the American Civil Rights Movement inspired him to return to Vancouver to document and celebrate the spirit of Japanese Canadians who lived in the former Paueru Gai/Powell Street neighbourhood before Japanese Internment.

During October’s Provincial Professional Development Day, teachers participating in Vancouver Art Gallery’s full-day session were invited to tour Enemy Alien: Tamio Wakayama with Mayumi Takasaki, Wakayama’s partner of 40 years. Her reflections on each photograph offered intimate and personal insights into the historical context of the work, bringing to life stories of resilience and activism. The tour inspired educators to develop curriculum exploring themes such as Japanese Canadian Internment, the civil rights movement in the American South, social justice movements in Canada, street photography, the Japanese Canadian redress movement, and personal activism.

This fall, the gallery is extending its focus on Enemy Alien through two after-school teen programs: The Teen Art Group and Art Exchange.

The Teen Art Group, presented in partnership with Emily Carr University of Art + Design, introduces students ages 15–18 to current exhibitions at the gallery. Participants will tour Enemy Alien with Mayumi Takasaki and view Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama, a documentary tracing Wakayama’s life and work. The film, featured within the exhibition space alongside a musical playlist, catalogue, and other resources, offers deeper insight into Wakayama’s artistic practice. The following week, students will take part in a hands-on studio session at Emily Carr University, exploring the technical aspects of black and white photography and documentary approaches to capturing live action.

Participants in Art Exchange, a program for students ages 13–15, will also tour Enemy Alien with Mayumi Takasaki and watch the accompanying film. Over the next three weeks, they will respond to the exhibition’s ideas through studio sessions at Arts Umbrella. In the fourth week, they will collaboratively curate their work for display in a month-long exhibition at the Cassils I Henriquez Exhibition Gallery at Arts Umbrella and participate in a group critique.

Enemy Alien remains on view at the Vancouver Art Gallery through February 22, 2026. A free teacher orientation will be held on Thursday, January 16 at 4:00 p.m. To register for the orientation or to book a self-guided class visit, contact learn@vanartgallery.bc.ca. Admission is always free for students 18 and under; adult chaperones receive a discounted rate of $25 per person.

Family tours and hands-on activities inspired by Enemy Alien will also take place on select Sunday afternoons in the gallery’s Making Place, an intergenerational space for all ages, free with gallery admission.

We look forward to your visit to the Vancouver Art Gallery.